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Group F Winners On paper this was going to be a dawdle. In reality these games are not played on paper and could prove to be more difficult with Morton putting out a much stronger starting XI than the one that went down to St Johnstone. We had a similar line-up to our last game with Joe Chalmers and Ryan Duncan starting in place of Wotherspoon and Paul Allan with Morgan Bates still missing. Morton brought in Longridge, Wilson and Cochrane with Brophy and O'Halloran on the bench. As the dust settled, the Caley Jags topped Group F and proceed into the last sixteen. An Alfie Bavidge penalty after quarter of an hour was the difference between the sides. East Fife finished second after beating St Johnstone 4-5 on penalties. The ninety minutes ended in dramatic fashion with Stanton scoring after ninety minutes and Healy equalising in the ninety-fifth minute to take it to spot kicks. On to next weekend when we begin our Championship campaign at home to Dunfermline Athletic. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The visitors got the game underway in their Black & Tan outfit and Morton were first to threaten running into the penalty box down the left side but a shrill whistle from the ref stopped play as Inverness were awarded a free kick. Early posturing and little fluidity saw play a bit disjointed, probably not helped by a lively surface that looked like it held a rock concert a day ago. The visitors were enjoying the bulk of the early possession but no goalmouth action until we were awarded a penalty in the 14th minute after Liam Sole was adjudged to have been fouled by Dean Black. Alfie Bavidge made no mistake from the spot. Morton were out of this by any means and looked busy around the edge of our box on a couple of occasions without working the keeper. We offered them a glimmer of hope after losing the ball on the right before Ross Munro was brought into action, saving at the expense of a corner on the half hour from Callum Sandilands curling shot. That encouraged the Ton and we had to defend a couple of awkward balls into the box as the hosts enjoyed their best spell of the game so far. A good bit of work on the left side set Chalmers up for a shot but he probably wished he hadn't bothered as he badly skied his awry effort. We did put the ball in the net after another sweeping move but Sole was flagged offside ten minutes before the break. Plenty of action around the home box but only the one goal to show for it. HALF TIME: 0-1 Morton made two changes at the break with O'Toole and Murphy on for Black and McLuckie. A lot of the early play in the second half was being disrupted by the referee's whistle which ruined any hope of free flowing football. A Morton corner was headed high over at the back post by Kris Moore twelve minutes in. Everything looked rushed as we headed towards the hour mark in an untidy encounter. All we could muster was a deflected Ryan Duncan shot that was easily gathered by the keeper. Substitute O'toole was first into the book for a robust tackle on Graeme Shinnie. A Sandilands ball across the face of our six yard box went abegging and at the other end Kinnear gathered a low shot from Longstaff. Morton were pushing for a leveller over the final ten minutes and as the scrappy play continued Harry Cochrane fired over followed closely by an Iain Wilson effort. Hamzad Kargbo thought he was Alfie Stewart for a moment but his clipped effort from way out drifted harmlessly wide. A drive into the box by Adam MacKinnon saw his parting shot run across the six yard box and out. FULL TIME: 0-1 Plenty of effort from both teams on a difficult surface but it was Alfie Bavidge's penalty after quarter of an hour that made the difference. We were deserved winners but made harder work of it than we probably should have. St Johnstone thought they had beaten East Fife with an injury time winner from Sam Stanton but up popped Jack Healy to level the tie in the 95th minute. It went to penalties with East Fife getting the bonus point 4-5 on penalties That result at Perth saw East Fife go second in the table. Group FPos. P W D L GF GA GD PTS 1 ICTFC 4 3 1 0 5 1 4 11 2 E Fife 4 2 2 0 7 3 4 9 3 Perth 4 2 1 1 6 2 4 7 4 Rose 4 1 0 3 2 7 -5 3 5 Morton 4 0 0 4 0 7 -7 0 Date: 25/07/2026 Venue: Cappielow Park Attendance: 0864 Referee: Ross Hardie Morton: 0 Manager: Ian Murray Lineup: Kinnear; Cochrane, Black (O'Toole 46), Longridge, Gillespie (Trialist25 76), Laiith Fairnie, Moore, Wilson, McLuckie (Murphy 46), Sandilands (O'Halloran 79), Garrity (Okunzuwa 73) Subs (not used): Murdoch; Carroll, Brophy Scorers: none Booked: O'Toole (63) Sent Off: none Inverness CT: 1 Manager: Scott Kellacher Lineup: Munro; MacLeod, Devine, Savage, Boutin, Sole (Kargbo 68), Chalmers, Shinnie, Duncan (Longstaff 68), Stewart (Mackinnon 74), Bavidge (Wotherspoon 88) Subs (not used): Ross; Smith, Keogh, Allan, Keir Scorers: Bavidge (14pen) Booked: none Sent Off: none